COURSE FROM YESTERDAYS HANDLERS 3 CLASS-THE RED LINE IS THE LINE THE HANDLER IS SUPPOSED TO STAY BEHIND WHILE RUNNING THIS, YIKES, THAT LOOKS LIKE DISTANCE-WHO SIGNED UP FOR THAT?
Yesterday was Breeze's class, who will from this day forward be known as SUPERGIRL. I was so proud of my girl, she is so amazing and she knows so much more then I give her credit for. I got to class and found out the subject of the lesson was DISTANCE HANDLING AND TRAINING. I really thought about turning around and going home-I did not want to set my doggie up for failure and we have just started training any distance in just running a regular course. I run with Linda M's APHS, and it is a big no no to do things like Gamblers because it is so easy to disregard your motion cues and to untrain the handling you work so hard to teach. Anyway, to make a long story shorter...I decided to run and to just pay attention to what I was doing, make sure I was showing motion and not doing anything that would disregard my own signals and if necessary I would just cross the lines and do what I had to do to make it understandable for Breeze, who has done no layering and is a pretty inexperienced dog. That is what class is for right...to try out new things where you can fix them if you need to.
Well, first run through was a DISASTER. LOL, it was laughable. We were by far the WORST team out there, by far the worst. Whooo Hooo Deanna was able to step in and showed me how to use all the cues we already use and just extend them out a little-and then of course use proper reward placement (reward out away from me where I wanted her to know that is indeed where I wanted her to be). OMG, second run through it was gorgeous. The first two runs were just the part that had the teeter and the tire in it, and after I got that worked out the third time I ran the full course and was able to do the whole thing really well. I learned a HUGE lesson, to not let myself get wigged out looking at something and to just use our skills and settle down and just do our best.
I so feel really good about my decisions last night because I wanted to run the last time with the full course and not stop, I knew she could do it by that time and it would have been so much fun....but because this was all so new for Breeze and a few times Breeze made the right choice but she was not sure she had done right so I set up four points that I wanted Deanna to throw the ball and reward Breeze because I knew those would be the places she was not going to be totally sure she made the right decision even if she was able to do it. It was awesome, I did not get to run without stopping which I would have enjoyed...but it sure made it really clear for Breeze that she had made some TERRIFIC choices while we ran the course.
Some days I am just so amazed when I find out that my dogs know so much more then I give them credit for, especially Breeze. We still have so many things to work on and so many short falls, our list of items we need to train for would curl any ones hair,... but I am just so in awe of my little dog and all the things I keep finding out she can do. Whoo hoooo. I would have bet BIG MONEY that last nights class was going to be so totally over our heads....We were actually able to run the full course and never cross the lines....you could have knocked me over with a feather!